சனி, 9 ஆகஸ்ட், 2014

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 August 2014, 10:54 GMT]A speeding tractor belonging to the Naayaa’ru camp of the occupying
SL Navy in Mullaiththeevu on 02 August hit a motorbike causing serious
injuries to two 24-year-old Eezham Tamil men from Mullaiththeevu. One of
the victims, Arumukam Sivakumar from Chilaavaththai South of
Mullaiththeevu district, succumbed to his injuries at Jaffna Teaching
Hospital on Thursday after struggling for his life for four days. The
victim is a father of two children. The SL Navy trooper who was riding
the tractor and his fellow troopers in the trailer had run away into a
nearby military camp after the accident, and they have not been
‘identified’ by the SL police.

Arumukam Sivakumar was recovered in unconscious state from the crash site, between the engine and the trailer.

The other youth, Parameswaran Sujeevan from Mullaiththeevu, has sustained serious injuries.

The SL police have also removed the vehicle from the crime scene, the residents in the area told TamilNet.

In
the meantime, the parents of the Tamil youth are under pressure from
the SL police not to seek legal action against the SL Navy. It is
“counter-productive”, the parents have been ‘advised’ by the Sri Lankan
police, which is an extended arm of the SL military Establishment in the
occupied country of Eezham Tamils.

Eezham Tamil student subjected to abduction-styled arrest at university in South

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 August 2014, 09:53 GMT]The intelligence operatives of Colombo’s military Establishment on
Tuesday abducted an Eezham Tamil student attending the Faculty of Social
Sciences and Languages in the Sabaragamuwa University, which is
situated at Balangoda of Ratnapura District in the South. The Tamil
student from Vavuniyaa in the North was allegedly ‘arrested’ with the
assistance of the University administration, according to informed
student circles at the University. The 25-year-old student, Niroj
Yogarajah, was last seen when a lecturer had summoned him after the
examination. The parents of Niroj have complained to the ‘Sri Lankan’
Human Rights Commission at Vavuniyaa on Thursday stating that they
suspected the SL Terrorist Investigation Division to be behind the
‘arrest’.

A group of intelligence operatives from the SL military had appeared on
the same day at his house situated in Kanakarayan-ku’lam in Vavuniyaa
seeking details of their son, Niroj, according to S. Yogarajah, the
father of the missing student.

When the parents questioned the
alleged intelligence officers on the reason for their visit, they were
told the details were needed for an employment opportunity to their son.

Niroj had just returned to the University to attend the exam after a 5-day visit to his parents at Chinna-Adampan in Vavuniyaa.

The Tamil student was arrested by the CID for investigation, according to the university administration at Sabaramaguwa.

The
student union at the University has reacted against the
abduction-styled arrest, as the SL Police at nearby Samanalawewa had no
information on his whereabouts. There was no documentary evidence for
his ‘arrest’ by the Police, the students say. The police officers have
also maintained that the student could have been detained under the
Emergency Regulations on ‘terrorism’ suspicion.

In the meantime,
Tamil student friends of Niroj in Vavuniyaa suspect that the
interrogation could have been triggered by the extremist Sinhala
elements at the University of Sabaragamuwa.

A Tamil student belonging to the same university was earlier abducted, attacked and released by unknown persons.

Around
10 Eezham Tamil students studying at the University had received death
threats in the past through anonymous leaflets issued by Sinhala
extremist elements that allegedly operate with the backing of the SL
military Establishment.

Encouraged by BJP New Delhi’s stand
against UN crimes investigation in the island, the Sri Lankan military
Establishment, which is led by SL presidential sibling and US citizen
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who maintains a close ‘military-to-military’
relationship with the Pentagon, has recently stepped up its shadow war
against Tamil journalists, relatives of missing persons and Tamil
activists including the Tamil student community.

வெள்ளி, 8 ஆகஸ்ட், 2014

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 August 2014, 08:40 GMT]Colombo is engaged in a sinister move to Sinhalicise and colonise a
large territory of the Batticaloa district with Sinhalese, Eastern
Provincial Council (EPC) Tamil National Alliance (TNA) councillor K.
Thurairajasingham told TamilNet. The area consists of more than 30 Tamil
villages that come under the Koara’laip-pattu South (Kiraan) and
Ea’raavoor-pattu (Chengkaladi) divisions. The Sinhala colonisation
project is taken forward through militarisation. Buddhist monks and
Sinhala politicians from Ampaa’rai and Polonnaruwa districts are
deployed by Colombo to give political leadership to the Sinhalicisation
phase of the project.

“We have won the war. Now the land is ours,” is their attitude, Mr
Thurairajasingham, who was a former TNA parliamentarian, further told
TamilNet.

“We have done everything from seeking legal action to
even appealing with the local commanders of the occupying military.
Nothing has worked to stop the occupation of grazing lands,” he said.

Forests
that need to be preserved are also being burnt down. The Tamil farmers
have approached even the SL Forest Conservation authorities in Colombo
and SL ministers. “But, everyone keep telling a different story,” the
Tamil councillor further said.

The reports of occupation of
grazing lands should not be seen as isolated events of encroachment, the
EPC councillor said urging Tamil politicians to prioritize the issue.

Sinhala
paramilitary known as ‘home-guards’ is actively deployed in the
occupation of grazing lands blocking Tamil farmers from taking their
cattle. There have been several reports of violent attacks, thefts and
slaying of cattle belonging to Tamil farmers in both the divisions.

There
have been several reports of similar occupation in three other
divisions, Poaratheevup-pattu, Paddip-pazhai and Vavu’na-theevu in the
district.

30,000 acres of lands had been allocated as pasture lands for the benefit of 250,000 livestock in Batticaloa district.

In
practice, the Tamil farmers were using 50,000 for several years. But,
in recent years, the Sri Lankan government has restricted the area to
30,00 acres.

In addition to this official ‘reduction’, the SL
military has seized several acres of the lands within the allocated
30,000 acres, distributing these lands to the families of Sinhala ‘home
guards’.

வியாழன், 7 ஆகஸ்ட், 2014

Clashes intensify between Kurds and Islamists in South Kurdistan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 August 2014, 19:58 GMT]The Peshmerga fighters of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of
South Kurdistan are engaged in fierce clashes with the Islamic State of
Iraq and Syria (ISIS) even as the Islamists have made some inroads into
Kurdish territories. The fighting now has reached the Kurdish regional
capital of Erbil in North Iraq, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The gains
of the Islamists have put religious minorities like Christians and
Yazidi Kurds at high risk, even as media reports that ISIS has vowed to
clear “infidels” from the areas occupied. Vian Dakhil, a Yazidi MP,
addressing the Iraqi Parliament on Tuesday, emotively raised a plea for
greater assistance for her community. “As we speak there is a genocide
taking place against the Yazidis,” she said. Kurds are also disappointed
at the collective silence of the International Community.

Ms. Dakhil, who is the only representative of the Yazidis in the
parliament, alleged that around 500 men had been killed in a matter of
days by the Islamists and women and children were being sold into
slavery.

Yazidis, who are ethnically Kurds, are a minority in
Iraq. Since they follow a pre-Islamic religion, they have faced several
religious persecutions in the past.

While they had a respite under the secular KRG, the assault of the ISIS has made their position once again very vulnerable.

When
the ISIS stormed their hometown of Sinjar, they had to flee to the
mountains by the tens of thousands. They are currently still there
without food or water supply.

Reports say that starvation deaths
have already taken place by the dozens and the numbers are to multiply
rapidly if there is no urgent action.

Apart from Yezidis, other
civilian Kurds, Christians and Shias, have also been at the receiving
end of the Islamist offensives in the past few days. The death toll
could be anywhere between 500 to 2000, going by different reports.

While
the Peshmerga have been putting up a stiff resistance against the
Islamists, the pro-US Iraqi government has been slow in providing
back-up to them.

Likewise, the US has also prevented the KRG from purchasing arms by their own, leaving them vulnerable.

Analysts
allege that the US was more interested in preserving the unity of their
puppet regime in Iraq than in aiding the Kurds against a force that has
demonstrated its intention of ethnic cleansing.

In a statement
on Sunday, Jen Psaki spokesperson of the US State Department said “The
ISIL assault over the past 48 hours on territories along the border of
the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and focusing on towns and villages populated
by vulnerable minorities, demonstrates once again that this terrorist
organization is a dire threat to all Iraqis, the entire region, and the
international community.”

“We will continue to facilitate
coordination between authorities in Baghdad and Erbil and provide direct
assistance wherever possible. We further call on all Iraqi leaders to
move swiftly pursuant to their constitutional timeline to form a new
government that can help pull the country together and harness national
resources against this common enemy.”

Monks-led mob disrupts Tamil victims’ meet in Colombo church

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 August 2014, 12:35 GMT]Encouraged by BJP New Delhi’s stand against UN crimes investigation
in the island, a Sinhala-Buddhist mob, led by monks, flexed muscles
against Tamil rights activists and family members of missing persons,
who went to Colombo from the Vanni districts to present their case in a
meeting held at a Catholic church at Maradana in Colombo on Monday. The
meeting was organised by the Center for Society and Religion and by
Inform Human Rights Center and the incident took place in the presence
of the US Deputy Ambassador in Colombo. The Tamil victims who went to
present their plight to southerners and diplomats were largely led by
Catholic church personalities of the Mannaar Diocese.

The Sinhala policemen were backing the mob led by the monk

The Buddhist monks accused
the Tamil victims of collaborating with external forces against their
‘country’ and said the victims were ‘anti-Sri Lankans’. The monks also
shouted that the victims who had travelled from Ki’linochchi, Mannaar,
Mullaiththeevu and Vavuniyaa were ‘terrorists’.

Along with the
US Deputy Head of Mission, Michael Honigstein, diplomats from the
European Union (Britian, France) and Switzerland were present at the
meeting when the incident took place.

Five extremist monks led
the mob of around 50 thugs. The Sri Lankan policemen who came an hour
later, were backing the mob. The meeting was fully disrupted, as the mob
was present at the locality for more than 2 hours, said S. Sagayam, the
deputy chairman of Mannaar District Citizens Committee.

Around
30 victims, most of them women searching for their husbands reported
missing, were taken to Colombo at the invitation of K.J. Brito Fernando,
who represents the Collective of the Families of the Disappeared
Persons in Colombo, Mr Sagayam told TamilNet.

The organisers had
to cancel the meeting and they went to file a complaint as the SL
policemen at the venue had failed in their duty, he further said.

Most
of the victims who had travelled from Vanni districts were Tamil women
who are searching for their husbands reported missing in the genocidal
onslaught on Vanni in 2009

* * *

In
recent times, the SL military intelligence with instructions from the
US-citizen and SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who
maintains a close relationship with Pentagon, has been targeting certain
US State-department backed programmes involving training workshops for
journalists from North, informed sources said.

The Sinhala
Buddhist State in the island waged a genocidal war against the nation of
Eezham Tamils by getting the complicity of external forces, numbering
more than 30 Establishments, mainly Washington, New Delhi and London.

Washington
managed to pass an eyewash investigation resolution at the UNHRC in
March, which neither recognised the nation of Eezham Tamils and the
genocide, nor called for the removal of the occupying Sinhala military
through which an on-going genocide is carried out.

By abstaining
the voting, Congress New Delhi crippled the investigation at the outset,
and the BJP New Delhi now openly opposes the investigation.

BJP ‘geopolitics’ pundits try to present the case as balancing the monopoly of NATO through BRICS.

Whether
Washington and New Delhi rarely coming together on the island, as was
in the case of the genocidal war, or their cold competition as seen from
the 1950s, both invariably bringing in disastrous results is the
experience of Eezham Tamils. It is because of the fundamental perception
of the two, impelled by imperialist greed, to look at the island as a
whole for their acquisition, Tamil political observers said.

Encouraged
by a weak UNHRC resolution and by the stand of the BJP New Delhi,
Colombo now boldly intimidates all potential sources that could come out
with crimes evidences. Colombo’s agents outside work hard in detracting
investigation of any kind, citing its futility and branding it as
Pro-USA.

Inside the island, the Tamil Catholic Church,
especially the Mannaar diocese, is largely targeted with intimidation,
political observers said.

The Pope’s proposed visit to the
island in January would only serve the forces that try to bailout the
genocidal State and its regime in the island, the political observers
further said.

The
representatives of the Western missions who were present at the meeting
were blamed by monks, mobilised by the SL military intelligence, as
supporting ‘terrorists’

Following is the full text of the press statement issued by the US Embassy in Colombo

U.S. Embassy Concerned by Meeting Disruption, Calls for Government to Enforce Rule of Law

On
August 4 a meeting that included U.S. Embassy officials was interrupted
by angry protesters, including a group of monks. The mob forced its way
into the meeting on the grounds of a Colombo Catholic church, where
families of disappeared persons from the civil conflict were sharing
their stories with civil society groups and members of the diplomatic
community. The U.S. Embassy is concerned that the initial reaction of
the local police to this disruption appeared to be in support of the
mob’s efforts to shut down the meeting, though after discussions with
diplomatic officials the police did effectively calm the situation.

The
mob shouted hateful slogans, made unfounded accusations, and behaved
threateningly towards the families of the disappeared. These protesters
were not exercising their right to peaceful protest, but rather were
disrupting a peaceful gathering of conflict survivors, including
children. The strong impression was that the protesters were seeking to
intimidate and silence those in attendance.

The United States
strongly urges the Government of Sri Lanka to enforce the rule of law
and permit all citizens to exercise their most basic human rights,
including freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. We also call on the
Government of Sri Lanka take all possible steps to ensure the safety of
families who had traveled from the North to attend this meeting, both
in Colombo and upon their return home.

Sinhala division hijacks civil affairs of Tamil division in East

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 August 2014, 23:49 GMT]After Sinhalicising the strategic land-link between the Northern and
Eastern provinces and demographically changing the Ma’nal-aa’ru region
of Eezham Tamils into a fully Sinhalicised DS division in the south of
Northern province, the Colombo government and its military Establishment
have now instructed the Sinhala Divisional Secretariat of Padavi
Sripura in Trincomalee to take charge of the civil affairs in the
northernmost part of Kuchave’li division of Trincomalee district in the
Eastern province. The move intends to carve out a Sinhala district,
occupying the strategic land and the sea link between the Northern and
Eastern provinces and annex that part with the North Central Province,
fear informed Tamil civil officials in Trincomalee.

The entire administration of the reconstruction work of Kollang-ku’lam
tank in Thennai-maravadi village of Kuchchave'li division has been taken
over by the Sinhala officials from Padavi Sripura division, the Tamil
officials who didn't wish to be named told TamilNet on Monday.

The
Tamil officials are also being told by the Colombo government to
approach Padavi Sripura Divisional Secretariat when they wanted to
provide electricity supply to villages in the northern part of the
Kuchchave’li division.

Already, Sinhala fishermen have been
brought in large numbers into Kokku’laay lagoon and the seas off
Kokku’laay, snatching away the fisheries-based livelihoods from Eezham
Tamils.

Three years ago, when Colombo was scheming demographic
changes absorbing Tamil villages into Sinhala and Muslim divisions in
Trincomalee, Tamils protested against the move.

However, the
Colombo government is continuing to commit the demographic genocide by
involving the Sinhala division to hijack the cvil administration in the
areas that come under Kuchchave'li division to make inroads for new
Sinhala settlements, the Tamil officials say.

BJP’s bypass ‘geopolitics’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 August 2014, 19:03 GMT]New Delhi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) comes out with a
comical ‘geopolitics’ bypassing India’s own Tamil Nadu State and the
nation of Eezham Tamils at the closest proximity, to build a ‘Ram Sethu’
to genocidal Sri Lanka, and in that process concedes to the total
annihilation of the nation and territoriality of Eezham Tamils. Even
though the inroads of China and Pakistan are cited as usual, and now
added with citation of US interference as well, the DNA of the thinking
of New Delhi and some of its South Indian articulators on the question
of Tamils has to be carefully understood by all Tamils. There is no
alternative to Tamils proving their geopolitical strength in all
justifiable ways possible.

TamilNet Editorial Board

It should be remembered that it is a struggle of the military-less
nations of Tamil Nadu Tamils and Eezham Tamils against imperialist New
Delhi and genocidal Colombo having ‘military to military’ relationship;
the former having an ‘Asian imperialist’ dream of foul geopolitical
foundations and means, and the latter considering the situation as a
once in a millennium historic opportunity to complete the genocide and
annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island.

It
should also be remembered that in this process, the BJP and the Congress
are not different; JNU’s Romila Thaper and Harward’s Subramanian Swamy
are not different and Hindutva polity and Marxist Communism of India are
not different.

It is high time for Tamil Nadu to lead a
political process in India to form a third front, based on a
confederation of regional political parties and various people’s
movements all over India.

The BJP polity is going to evoke
dangerously sharp confrontations in India and disillusionment of masses
should not again bring in Sonia-Rahul-Priyanka Congress. Among the
southern States, it is only Karnataka that is lacking in coming out with
a powerful non-BJP/ non-Congress political formation. Others should
inspire and help Karnataka in this regard.

* * *

Encouraged
by New Delhi’s ‘geopolitics’ prostrating to genocide, Gotabaya
Rajapaksa’s defence ministry website came out with a derogatory feature
on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalithaa, who was steadily voicing
against New Delhi’s foul complicity with genocidal Sri Lanka.

The
website withdrew the feature with unconditional apology and the
occasion has demonstrated a rare and appreciable coming together of all
political parties of Tamil Nadu in voicing protest.

Tamil Nadu is
always excellent in coming out with emotional responses. But when it
comes to theoretical challenges in shaping elite opinion in other parts
of India and in setting international perspectives, why should they
always be the realm of Cho Ramaswamies, Subramanian Swamies, Sri Lanka
Ratna Rams and now Seshadri Chari Ramanujams, is a question Tamil Nadu
intellectuals and political movements should peruse.

There is a
conscious and explicit effort by both New Delhi and Colombo to isolate
Tamil Nadu in India, just because it opposes a sinister imperialist
model creating another Israel in its neighbourhood.

The
Mumbai-based corporate media opinion mobilisations, genocidal Colombo’s
activities in Andhra and Odisha, and now Subramanian Swamy, BJP’s
Strategic Action Committee Chairman, saying, “let us delink Indo-Lanka
relations from Tamil Nadu and problems of the Tamils,” are some of the
manifestations of this isolation policy.

“Sri Lanka is the
guardian of the Indian Ocean for India. India’s security and prosperity
depends on security and prosperity in Sri Lanka,” said Seshadri Chari
Ramanujan, head of BJP’s Foreign Policy Cell, outlining BJP’s
envisagement for a ‘New Commonwealth of Asia.”

Tamil Nadu has
every theoretical and humanitarian justification in opposing the handing
over of the ‘guardianship’ of security to congenitally genocidal Sri
Lanka, and the foul foundations of the ‘New Commonwealth of Asia.’

* * *

But
geopolitics is partly a smokescreen. BJP’s corporate media journalist
Swapan Dasgupta, who was in the forefront in defending genocidal Sri
Lanka when he visited the island along with Sushma Swaraj, even before
BJP coming to power, said this time that Mr. Modi’s main priority is
unequivocally economic.

“It’s this very matter-of-fact, urgent
business style – very Gujerati. That’s the DNA that will define Modi.”
Colombo’s Sunday Times cited Swapan Dasgupta.

Eezham Tamils in
their long struggle in the island know well what genre of theoretical
DNAs contributed to their genocide and are continuing with that.

When
PTI cited Seshadri Chari Ramanujan that he had told Colombo to resolve
the Tamil issue for trade and commerce between Colombo and New Delhi to
progress, Chari came out with an immediate denial, saying that he had
never spoken those words in Colombo.

According to him, he had
only expressed his opinion that the Tamils issue was an internal matter
of Sri Lanka and should not be internationalised.

"I am a votary of greater trade and commerce with Sri Lanka," he added.

* * *

Full
complicity in genocide and continued genocide is not involvement in
internal matters. Ganging up with the USA and 30+ world Establishments
in the genocide was not internationalisation. But investigation, justice
and talking of any just solution are interference and
internationalisation – this is BJP New Delhi’s ‘national interest’
transcending ‘regional interest’.

“We are very proud of your
president for decisively finishing a sinister terror organisation that
was a threat to our country too,” Subramanian Swamy said in Colombo
amidst applause, adding, “Let no activity in the international arena
subtract from them…sometimes I wonder is these HR issues contrived to
belittle the importance of this decisive victory.”

According to
Swamy, countries accusing Sri Lanka of rights abuse were themselves
guilty of serious violations and hence, “There is no need for Sri Lanka,
or India, to be defensive about it.”

According to BJP’s South
India based ‘geopolitics’ pundit, Prof Madhavan Nalapat, who was
speaking on BRICS as a ‘viable new architecture’ to balance the monopoly
of NATO, Rajapaksa is a hero.

“In this multi-polar world Sri
Lanka has an important role” he asserted. In 2009 Mahinda Rajapaksa did
not give in to pressures to ‘give certain individuals one more chance.’
There is a clear message in that kind of independence coming at a time
when the unipolar world is on the wane. “Sri Lanka’s independent foreign
policy is appreciated by Modi,” Sunday Times cited Madhavan Nalapat.

If Madhavan’s reference is to the USA, Tamils have every reason to consider New Delhi as a worse adversary than Washington.

If
genocidal Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ‘independence’ in not giving in to
pressure, (opportunistically) seeing the unipolar world on the wane, is
appreciable to Modi, what greater applause and appreciation
Pirapaharan’s LTTE that didn't surrender a righteous liberation struggle
should get from the world humanity, for not giving in to the joint
mobilisation of the USA, UK, India, China, Russia, Japan, EU, and 30+
Establishments and the UN, the trade union of these Establishments?

* * *

The
PPT has a lacuna in not pursuing the investigation and exposure on the
role of India in the genocide and continued genocide of Eezham Tamils.

Tamils
have not done enough studies on the competition between Washington and
New Delhi over the island ever since the Bandung Conference and Nehru’s
times, and how it was the Tamils who were always at the receiving end,
first the up-country Tamils of Indian origin and then the Eezham Tamils,
as scapegoats of New Delhi’s same old ‘geopolitics’ taking only new
‘avatars’.

Genocidal Sri Lanka’s former permanent representative
to the UN in Geneva during the war, Dayan Jayatilleka, said on Friday
that, “India under Modi will not take kindly to the West bypassing India
and attempting to strong arm Sri Lanka.”

Will Tamil Nadu of 70
million people, and having an equal say in the geopolitical location,
take it kindly to New Delhi bypassing it in making an unholy alliance
with Sri Lanka in the annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils,
creating permanent unrest in Tamil Nadu, is the question. History will
answer it.

Fr. Thaninayagam centenary statue unveiled in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 August 2014, 23:27 GMT]A memorial statue was unveiled in Jaffna marking the centenary of the
grand Tamil scholar Rev. Fr. Xavier Thani Nayagam on Saturday and the
location known as Madaththadi situated on the Jaffna Main Road in the
city, has been declared Thani Nayagam Square. The peaceful opening
ceremony comes after the organisers had been firm in braving the
harassment by the occupying Sri Lankan military that wanted to erect a
Buddha statue at the locality, residents told TamilNet.

A mini-camp of the SL military was
earlier situated at the locality. After the camp was removed, the SL
military was attempting to erect a Buddhist temple, but someone had
removed the structure put up by the SL military at the locality, the
residents told TamilNet.

The SL military has been harassing
the residents and the organisers questioning whether the monument was
meant for Tamil fighters and the people who perished in Vanni War,
according to the residents.

Due to the harassment by the SL
military, the organising committee had decided not to invite any
political activists or party members to the event.

However,
Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) General Secretary and Tamil
National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian Maavai Senathirajah, EPDP leader
and SL Minister Douglas Devananda, Jaffna Mayor Yogeswary Patkunarajah
and Tamil councillors, including the EPDP opposition leader at the NPC,
were present at the event without any invitation, the organisers said.

Bishop
of Jaffna Rev. Dr. Thomas Savundranayagam declared the monument opened.
The event took place under the leadership of the Joint Secretary of
Centenary Statue Committee, Rev. Fr. Jeyasekaram.

Professor
M. Sinnathamby from the University of Jaffna gave the keynote address
highlighting the contribution of Fr Thaninayagam to Tamil Studies.

Tamil academics, teachers, school principals and members of Yaazhppaa’nath Thamizch-changkam took part at the event.

The artist behind the sculpture, Mr Babu, was honoured at the event.

Jaffna
Thamizh Changkam and the Diocese of Jaffna have been the organisers of
the move with the support of Pungkudutheevu village union in Canada.

Last
year marked the centenary of Thamizh-thoothu Thani Nayagam adika’laar
(1913 – 1980), an Eezham Tamil who promoted Tamil research worldwide and
who was instrumental behind several initiatives such as the launching
of the International Association for Tamil Research (ITAR) in 1964 and
organising of the first World Tamil Conference in 1966 in Kuala Lumpur.
He was also the founder of a quarterly academic journal Tamil Studies.

Israel, Sri Lanka,

need collective world action

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 August 2014, 00:02 GMT]What Israel is doing in Gaza now is collective punishment. Israel
will accept nothing short of the acquiescence of Palestinians to their
own subordination. The twenty-three-year charade of the “peace process”
has shown that this is all Israel is offering, with the full approval of
Washington. The U.S. must either reverse its policies or abandon its
claim of being an “honest broker.” It should certainly not insult
Palestinians by saying that it cares about them or their children, who
are dying in Gaza today, writes Arab Studies Professor Rashid Khalidi of
Columbia University. What is said on Palestine is no different from
what could be said on Washington and New Delhi put together in the case
of the nation of Eezham Tamils, comment Tamil activists for alternative
politics.

“We might not like Hamas or some of its methods, but that is not the
same as accepting the proposition that Palestinians should supinely
accept the denial of their right to exist as a free people in their
ancestral homeland,” Professor Khalidi wrote in The New Yorker on
Tuesday.

Khalidi was an adviser to the Palestinian delegation at
the Madrid-Washington Palestinian-Israeli negotiations of 1991-93 and
has recently authored a book, “Brokers of Deceit”.

Washington
and New Delhi directed a genocidal war through the agent Sinhala State
in Colombo and they now work for confirmation of the genocide and
annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils through permanent structural
means. The difference between Washington and New Delhi in this case is
only their petty competition, commented Tamil activists for alternative
politics, comparing the plight of the Palestinian and Eezham Tamil
nations.

Unfortunately the Arab countries and especially the
Islamic countries in South Asia itself have failed to take a just
international stand on the question of Eezham Tamils, the activists
said.

Many of the so-called international campaigners and
‘signature groups’ that make a big noise now were totally silent when
Washington, New Delhi and Beijing were in the making of another Israel
in the southern tip of South Asia. The world needs collective
mobilisation against the ultimate culprits and any double standard
resulting from the bloc interests of the same culprits, would weaken the
global struggle of humanity, the Tamil activists further said.